


Asshole Kid Kevin (working title)

by indigo_inkpot



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 22:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20015785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigo_inkpot/pseuds/indigo_inkpot
Summary: Kevin is a five year old, through mysterious circumstances. Nobody understands how much sleep small children need. Chaos ensues.





	Asshole Kid Kevin (working title)

**Author's Note:**

> This was 100% inspired by ziegenkind on twitter. I have no regrets, I'm not looking at all my WIPs.  
> I didn't edit or ask anyone to beta this, but I don't have the energy to edit tonight!

"I don't know what that means."

The look Kevin gives him, the one that says _I don't understand how you can be this stupid_ , looks as infuriating on a five year old as it does on an adult. Neil shifts his weight to his other side, trying to keep Kevin's centre of gravity over his bony hip. It's hard, how do parents do this? There's got to be some kind of trick, but Neil finds he has to keep bouncing Kevin back up every time he slides down.

Maybe it's just Kevin being uncooperative. It probably is. Kevin seems hell-bent on making Neil's life harder, and is determined to not repeat what he said, maybe hoping that glaring at Neil will spark an epiphany.

Or maybe he's looking for an excuse to have a temper tantrum. Neil wouldn't put it past him.

"He's probably just cranky, he was up at the crack of dawn. Give him to me, I've got a paper to write, he can take a nap while I-"

"No!" Kevin is adamant, coiling his skinny legs around Neil's waist and tightening his grip on his collar. 'No' seems to be his favourite word.

Nicky sighs, scrubbing at his face, "How long have you been carrying him?" Neil looks at his watch.

"Since lunchtime so...two hours, give or take?" Now Neil thinks about it, that's a long time to carry a grumpy kid. He can feel the way his spine has shifted, and he's going to regret it later. He kinda regrets it now.

Nicky shakes his head and flicks the coffee maker on. He gets three mugs down from the cabinet, dumps sugar into one, leaves the middle one empty and fills the third with milk. The milk filled mug goes in the microwave, while he pours coffee into the other two. Kevin watches his actions like a hawk as Nicky gets Andrew's squeezy bottle of honey and unloads a generous amount into the milk, stirring it with a spoon. Nicky hands Neil his coffee and Kevin reaches out for the mug of milk, leaning far enough to overbalance Neil and slop some of his coffee on the floor at their feet. 

"Hey! Don't grab, okay? If you want this, you're gonna come sit on the couch and give Neil's back a rest." Kevin's face gets tight and tense, but he loosens his grip until Neil lets him slide to the floor. He sits on the couch between Neil and Nicky, hugging his milk as Neil flicks through the sports channels, looking for an Exy game. He settles on some low-rank league highlights.

Kevin is asleep, grip slack on his half-empty mug, before the pundits even finish discussing the line up.

* * *

They're still at a loss to how this happened; Wymack and Kevin had been ready to go on a "bonding trip" (Abby's idea), after half a day's travel they stopped for the night at a motel. The next morning, Wymack wakes up with a five year old. Obviously, he comes straight home, with a tiny Kevin bundled in the front seat.

That was yesterday, and today Wymack has work to do and a striker's absence to cover up. Originally, they'd planned on waiting out Wymack and Kevin's vacation time at Abby's, secretly waiting for whatever had happened to un-happen. They'd spun a lot of lies in response to some of Kevin's questions; Wymack was his dad (that part at least was true) and he was staying with him while his mum was away, he couldn't stay at Evermore because Riko and Tetsuji had a family event and there would be nobody there to look after him. He wasn't happy about any of it, but he accepted the excuses, and that was enough for now.

They lost the opportunity to lay low when the court was broken into. Partly because people would get suspicious if Wymack wasn't contacted about a break-in on his team's home turf, but mainly because Wymack couldn't be kept away, and stormed back to campus without considering what that would mean.

So, five year old Kevin has done two long car rides in the last 48 hours; once back to Palmetto, and once to Columbia, where Neil, Nicky and Andrew are holed up with him for the foreseeable future. The only peace they've gotten is when Kevin is asleep, and that hasn't happened much. Neil was sure little kids needed tons of sleep, but Kevin seems to be running on even less than he did as an adult.

Admittedly, he's also tried to pick fights with everybody and stubbornly refused to let go of Neil for more than a few minutes at a time.

Neil put his head back against the sofa and tried not to think about all the hours between now and bedtime.

* * *

When Neil woke up, his neck ached, his back hurt, and Kevin was tucked into his armpit. The light coming in through the window was fading- fuck, they'd slept _all afternoon_. There goes most of Kevin's night's sleep. He's sleeping hard too, dead to the world and heavy against Neil's side. He doesn't budge when Neil shakes him.

Andrew walks in from the kitchen, breaking apart a cookie and putting the crumbly pieces in his mouth. Neil looks at him mournfully until Andrew leaves and returns with a second and third cookie, one of which he shoves into Neil's mouth whole. Nicky follows in shortly after, peering over the back of the sofa.

"Huh, he's still out? You guys aren't gonna sleep a wink tonight!"

Neil glares at Nicky. He's well aware of that. The first night Kevin was like this, they were all at Abby's, and Kevin wandered from room to room all night, looking for attention. Now that he's fixated on Neil, it's clear they won't be rid of him when bedtime comes.

Bedtime comes, and Nicky's predictions come true. Kevin wanders from room to room, never staying in his own bed for long, and nodding off the moment he stops moving, only to be up again the moment he senses he's alone. By 4:00AM, Neil has given up on sleep, Kevin is back in his favourite spot, wrapped around his torso. Neil's pretty sure he's actually been asleep for the last ten minutes, but every time he tries to put Kevin down, his attempts are met with noisy complaints. The day starts off rocky, by the time Nicky gets up Kevin is already through the worst of sulk number one, and it only gets worse.

That night, they try a new tactic. Kevin starts off in his own room, in one of Aaron's t-shirts for pyjamas because Andrew's are too wide and Neil's are too long. Neil tucks him in, turns off the light, and instead of going back to the living room to watch tv until Kevin inevitably comes looking for him; Neil walks to his and Andrew's room and immediately locks their door behind him.

Neil underestimated how loud children can scream when they're unhappy. Kevin's whining and shrieking when he doesn't get his way had not prepared him for the desperate wailing of a five year old faced with a locked door.

He wasn't prepared for the fact that this might be the last straw for a tiny, sleep deprived little kid.

"No! I don't want you anymore! I want my mummy!" He's hearing it for the seventeenth time, and he still hasn't come up with an answer. Kevin won't let himself be touched or comforted, is sitting in the middle of the hallway and sobbing. Nicky comes down to see what's going on. Andrew stays out of sight, closing the door behind Neil.

"Kevin, we don't have a contact number for your mom, can we call your dad instead?" Nicky asks, crouching down and reaching out.

Kevin seems to weigh his options; go to Neil, who betrayed him by locking him out of their room, go to Nicky, who he doesn't particularly like, or continue to sit on the floor and cry. He settles on a mixture of options two and three; crawling towards Nicky until he's scooped up and cuddled. Nicky is a natural, and immediately has Kevin settled high up on his shoulder where he burrows against his neck and sniffles.

Neil can't help but envy how easy Nicky gives touch, how easy he finds it to hold Kevin how he wants to be held.

"He can come sleep in my room tonight, you look like you could do with a break. Tomorrow, we're gonna call his dad."

They retreat to bed, Neil and Andrew close their door firmly behind them, and Nicky doesn't hang around long enough for Kevin to work out if they locked it this time.

Nicky's bedroom is nice but pretty functional. He has a big bed, with plenty of pillows and blankets, some stuffed toys lining the top of the headboard and a range of furniture in mismatched types of wood.

Nicky sits down on the foot of the bed, letting Kevin slide down to sit properly on his lap.

"Now, are you ready to stop crying or do you need more time?" Kevin sniffs and nods, wiping at his eyes. Nicky takes that as a 'yes' to the former, "Do you want to tell me why you're upset?"

"I wanted Neil."

"So why didn't you knock on the door? Why the screaming?" Kevin shrugs, looking down at his feet. Nicky can see that his eyes are red and watery, still. Time to tread lightly.

"I think we all need a good night's sleep. Do you want to wash your face before we go to bed?" Kevin nods, and reaches up to wrap his arms around Nicky's neck, "Oh, we're both going to the bathroom then, okay."

It takes him another ten minutes to get Kevin scrubbed free of tears and smelling minty fresh (because the kid had only slept for half an hour but still insisted on brushing his teeth again) and then they're back on the big comfy bed. Nicky bunches up a pillow and drags the big soft duvet over the two of them. Kevin is quiet for a minute, before he points up at the headboard and makes a noise.

"Hm- oh, you want a stuffie? Here, I think I've got one you'll like." Nicky reaches into the pile and pulls out a floppy little fox. It was a gift from Dan when they'd first joined the team, Nicky had let it slip about his plush collection and she'd given it to him secretly on his first birthday with the Foxes. Kevin takes the fox, shoves it under his chin and burrows down under the duvet. Nicky smiles, reaching back to switch off the light.

* * *

"Alright, geniuses- genii? Not the point. - I did some googling this morning and we've screwed up royally." Nicky announces this with the rapidity of someone who has been awake long enough to consume obscene amounts of caffeine as he plates up breakfast. "It occurred to me that Kevin can't be trusted to give an accurate idea of how much sleep he needs, and he's probably been running on some weird proto-Nest time, so I did my own research. Apparently, kids his age need eleven hours of sleep a night, without a nap."

"Eleven?! He gets, what, five?" Neil asks, digging his palms into his eyes. He's still fighting the sleep debt.

"He got a little over eight with me last night. I think there's some separation anxiety going on, so it's probably best he bunks with me for now. Unless you and Andrew think you can fit another tiny body in that bed of his?" Andrew glares at this, although it's so early in the morning for him he clearly doesn't have the energy to respond.

Nicky continues, unfazed by Andrew's glare, "We're laying down a routine, as of today. Regular meals, scheduled bath and bedtime, the whole nine yards. I don't do sleep deprivation, so if he's staying with me he's going to sleep through the night."

Neil sighs, "We won't make it to the end of the week."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress and subject to edits/rewrites!


End file.
